• High blood pressure during pregnancy lin

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Wed Mar 1 21:30:28 2023
    High blood pressure during pregnancy linked to thinking problems later
    Study finds even greater risk in those with preeclampsia, eclampsia

    Date:
    March 1, 2023
    Source:
    American Academy of Neurology
    Summary:
    High blood pressure disorders during pregnancy are associated with
    an increased risk of thinking problems later in life, according
    to a study.

    Researchers found that those with these disorders had a higher
    risk of cognitive problems in later life than those who did not
    have high blood pressure during pregnancy. They also found that
    those with preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure that develops
    halfway through pregnancy and usually involves the kidneys and other
    organs, may have an even greater risk of cognitive decline later
    in life, compared to those with gestational high blood pressure,
    a condition with high blood pressure in pregnancy but without
    affecting the kidneys or other organs.


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    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    High blood pressure disorders during pregnancy are associated with
    an increased risk of thinking problems later in life, according to a
    study published in the March 1, 2023, online issue of Neurology(R),
    the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers
    found that those with these disorders had a higher risk of cognitive
    problems in later life than those who did not have high blood pressure
    during pregnancy. They also found that those with preeclampsia, which is
    high blood pressure that develops halfway through pregnancy and usually involves the kidneys and other organs, may have an even greater risk
    of cognitive decline later in life, compared to those with gestational
    high blood pressure, a condition with high blood pressure in pregnancy
    but without affecting the kidneys or other organs.


    ========================================================================== "While high blood pressure during pregnancy, including preeclampsia,
    is recognized as a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, our study
    suggests that it may also be a risk factor for cognitive decline in
    later life," said study author Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a
    member of the American Academy of Neurology.

    The study involved 2,239 female participants with an average age of 73.

    Researchers looked at medical records for information about previous pregnancies.

    Of the participants, 1,854 people or 83% had at least one pregnancy,
    and 385 people or 17% never had a pregnancy or had a pregnancy of less
    than 20 weeks.

    Of those with pregnancies longer than 20 weeks, 100 had gestational
    high blood pressure, 147 had preeclampsia or eclampsia and 1,607 had
    normal blood pressure. Preeclampsia is when there is excess protein in
    the urine during pregnancy. Eclampsia is when high blood pressure during pregnancy causes one or more seizures, sometimes followed by a coma.

    For the study, participants took nine memory and thinking tests every 15
    months over an average of five years. The tests measured thinking and
    memory skills including global cognition, processing speed, executive
    function, language and visual perception.

    Overall, researchers found that those with high blood pressure during
    pregnancy had a greater decline than those without high blood pressure
    during pregnancy and those who had not given birth on tests of global cognition, attention, executive function and language.

    After adjusting for age and education, the average composite score of
    all memory and thinking tests of participants with any type of high blood pressure disorder had a decline of 0.3 points compared to those who did
    not have high blood pressure during pregnancy with a decline of 0.05
    points. When looking at different types of high blood pressure disorders,
    those with preeclampsia had a decline of 0.04 points compared to those
    with other blood pressure disorders and those with no blood pressure
    disorders, which both had a decline of 0.05.

    After adjusting for age and education, those with high blood pressure
    in pregnancy declined 0.4 standard deviation over five years on
    tests of executive function and attention, compared to those who
    had normal blood pressure for all pregnancies and declined only 0.1
    standard deviation. These results were more pronounced for those who
    had preeclampsia, with a 0.5 standard deviation decrease on tests of
    executive function and attention compared to a 0.1 decrease for those
    who had normal blood pressure for all pregnancies.

    "More research is needed to confirm our findings. However, these results suggest that managing and monitoring blood pressure during and after
    pregnancy is an important factor for brain health later in life,"
    Mielke said.

    A limitation of the study is that most of the participants were white,
    so results may not be generalizable to more diverse populations that
    have higher rates of high blood pressure in pregnancy.

    The study was funded by National Institutes of Health and the Gerald
    and Henrietta Rauenhorst Foundation.

    * RELATED_TOPICS
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    # Intelligence # Educational_Psychology #
    Obstructive_Sleep_Apnea # K-12_Education
    * RELATED_TERMS
    o Blood_pressure o Hypertension o Nutrition_and_pregnancy
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    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Academy_of_Neurology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Calin I Prodan. Bridging the Gap Between Hypertensive Disorders of
    Pregnancy and Cognitive Decline in Older Women. Neurology, 2023
    DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207237 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301162703.htm

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